Italy: Opened investigation by competition authority against TIM and DAZN for possible anti-competitive practice

On 8 July 2021, the Italian competition authority announced an investigation into certain contract clauses between TIM - a telecom, internet and TV operator - and DAZN, an online sports streaming platform. The competition authority intends to determine whether the agreement that imposes a restriction on DAZN in offering pay-TV services is anti-competitive because it obstacles its capacity of providing promotional offers. Further investigated clauses of the agreement concern the use of technical solutions by TIM that might not be equally offered to competing telecommunications operators. Particularly, the competition authority is concerned about the blurring of the TV and internet streaming market, as service providers like TIM have dominance over said market and can easily dominate new aspects of telecom and internet services.